


an everlasting exchange

by rudderless in an ocean of stars (indelibly_ellie)



Series: The Return of the Vanished [1]
Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, because i need some things fixed and i might as well do it myself, seriously don’t read below this tag unless you want to be spoiled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 09:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18618268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indelibly_ellie/pseuds/rudderless%20in%20an%20ocean%20of%20stars
Summary: The last stone Steve Rogers returns is the hardest one to let go of.He gets something unexpected in exchange.//Steve Rogers goes to Vormir to return the soul stone and finds a few surprises along the way.





	an everlasting exchange

The cloaked figure on Vormir speaks with a voice Steve Rogers had never expected to hear again.

 

“Steven, son of Sarah.”

 

He doesn’t bother trying to hide his surprise- or his disdain.

 

“Schmidt, son of a bitch.”

 

Clint had told them all about a red man guarding the stone on Vormir, but never in his wildest dreams- or nightmares- had Steve thought it would be the Red Skull. And after everything, he hadn’t had the heart to press Barton for more details beyond that.

 

“Why are you here, Captain?” Strangely, there’s no venom in his tone. Just the same, deep sadness that seems to haunt them both, now.

 

He reaches for the stone in his pocket, fingers shaking so badly that it takes more effort than it should not to drop it onto the snow-covered rock beneath his feet.

 

It’s all he has left of her. It’s everything she sacrificed herself for. And it’s killing him to think of giving it back to the very man who set him on the path to a 70-year slumber in the ice. But he has a job to do, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t complete his mission.

 

“I came to return this.”

 

The orange stone shines brightly in stark contrast to Vormir’s perpetual state of sunset. It almost seems to pulse in his palm, as if there’s a still-beating heart resting in his hand.

 

The Red Skull floats forward, the tattered hood of his cloak falling away to reveal a surprised expression.

 

“The stone has always had to return itself after the death of its owner.” He tilts his head and meets Steve’s eyes with a fathomless gaze. “No one has ever returned what they take from here.”

 

“I guess there’s a first for everything, then, because I’m here to make sure it goes back to where it belongs.”

 

“Very well, then, son of Joseph.” He stretches out an arm in Steve’s direction, palm upwards, skeletal fingers spread wide. “Vormir accepts.”

 

Steve sets the glowing stone into the phantom hand of his former enemy and everything goes black.

 

* * *

 

When he wakes up in the water, there’s a body in his arms.

 

Red hair streaked with the white she could never bring herself to dye or cut away. Muscled curves of a body long-since honed to become a weapon as sharp as her mind.

 

For a second, he’s afraid to move, as if she’ll crumble in his embrace the moment he does.

 

If it’s just her body, if all he’s been given is the chance to bring her home, then he’ll be grateful for that. He has to be.

 

But then she stirs, and he feels her take a breath against the arm that’s around her waist, and it takes everything in him not to startle her with a sudden cry of surprise.

 

She grabs his hand and turns in the water to face him, splashing them both even more but he doesn’t care.

 

He doesn’t even bother to blink, too enraptured at the sight of her there, alive and breathing in front of him. It’s more than he could have ever hoped for when he set out to return the stones. It’s why he saved this one for last; the fear of coming to see her broken body on the stones had kept him from coming here until the very end.

 

“Steve?” Her face lights up at the sight of him, then, just as quickly, her expression falters. “Did we lose?”

 

He laughs, and the sound echoes strangely across the vast expanse of the alien world around them.

 

“No, Nat.” He sits up then, and she follows, his arm still loosely wound around the curve of her waist. They’re so close that he can’t practically count every fleck of gold in her green eyes. He almost starts to, right there and then, suddenly desperate to recommit every single, tiny detail of her to memory. “We won.”

 

“But then... How am I here?” She looks down at herself, moving to rest a hand against her chest, almost as if to make sure she’s really breathing, really here. “The guardian said it was an everlasting exchange.”

 

“I came here to give the stone back, Nat. And I guess they just decided to give you back in exchange too.”

 

When she looks back up at him, there are tears in her eyes. It shouldn't surprise her that there are tears in his eyes too, but somehow, it does.

 

“Steve?” Natasha lowers her hand to grasp his wrist where it rests in the infinitesimal space between them.

 

He still hasn’t moved to take his hand away from her waist. Part of him never wants to let her out of his sight ever again. He knows there are dozens of people back on Earth who will feel the same way.

 

“You said you'd only be a minute, Nat.”

 

“I know. And I'm not sorry for doing what had to be done. But I'm here now.” Her smile lights up the landscape like a sunrise. He doesn’t ever want to look away. “So let's go home.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> So. 
> 
> Interpret their relationship however you would like for now, but keep in mind that this is the first of a series.
> 
> Because I thoroughly plan to keep fucking with canon. :)
> 
> This is cheesy and rushed but I just had to do it. Sorry! *yeets self into the void*
> 
> Leave a review, hug your neighborhood spysassin.


End file.
